Debbie Federici is rapidly becoming one of my favorite fiction authors. She
writes for middle to older teen markets, and she has a real feel for teen
angst. Her characters feel real, no matter how unreal a situation they find
themselves in. Her heroes are not invincible. Nor are they always
obedient. Her villains are frequently megalomaniacs, but that is a common
short-coming of literary baddies.

Her stories (including the L.O.S.T. series she is co-authoring) have a
commonality in that they rely on cross-dimensional settings (although not
the same universe), with the more mundane, earth-bound segment showing a
lack of awareness of the existence of extra-dimensional contact. And that
rings true, as well. How often have you seen or heard something totally out
of place and shrugged it off with a "That can't be. I must have imagined
it."

The experiences of Taryn in the other worlds are, obviously,
out-of-this-world. For all of that, it is easy to relate to what she is
going through. Her heroine has problems to deal with - both physically
(Menier's disease) and emotionally. Some of the things she must deal with
are pretty much part of the process of growing up (insecurity, doubts,
etc.), but some of them are not things faced by the average teen (betrayal,
death, etc.)

The story is told from alternating points of view; between Taryn (a
youngster raised on Earth) and Erick (raised in a world where magic and
sorcery are daily occurrences; between that of a youngster who has no idea
of what to expect from a world which is very different from what she has
experienced all of her life and that of a young man who has trained to be a
warrior for all of his life.

There is a connection between the young people where there should be no
points in common. There are problems too. Hey, it's a book with teens as
the main protagonists, what would you expect?

Without getting into the plot (you should read the book, already), it is
obvious that this is the intended start of another series of books. This
book is aimed at those 14 and up, and should hold their interest.

There are fewer errors than I have come to expect in books today, and thus
the book is easy to read.